– – – BRAND NEW REVIEWS – – –
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
This is probably what you’ve been looking forward to. 😀 Welcome to the David Tennant/Fourteenth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ in the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th Anniversary Marathon on ‘Bradley’s Basement’. This consists of the 60th anniversary specials that were shown on BBC TV in the UK and on Disney+ in other parts of the world from November to December 2023. There’s the mini-episode ‘Destination: Skaro’, which was shown on Children in Need night in November 2023, and there’s the three 60th anniversary specials themselves, including ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’. All the specials are by Russell T. Davies (with ‘The Star Beast’ being from a story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons), and they star David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble. There are also special guest stars like Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker and Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble, Donna’s daughter. There was a lot of hype in the build-up to the 60th anniversary specials on TV. Afterwards, lots of ‘Doctor Who’ fans and audience members have found them satisfying. Where do I stand on this? Did the 60th anniversary specials of ‘Doctor Who’ by RTD fulfil my expectations? ‘Destination: Skaro’ can be checked out on BBC iPlayer or YouTube, and ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’ can be checked out on DVD, Blu-ray and BBC iPlayer in the UK or on DVD, Blu-ray and Disney+ in other parts of the world.
Please feel free to check out, read and comment on my brand-new reviews for ‘Destination: Skaro’, ‘The Star Beast’, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ and ‘The Giggle’. Stay tuned for my reviews on ‘The Star Beast’ Target novelization/audiobook by Gary Russell, read by Jacqueline King; the ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ Target novelization/audiobook by Mark Morris, read by Bonnie Langford; and ‘The Giggle’ Target novelization/audiobook by James Goss, read by Dan Starkey, coming soon.
Enjoy!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Hi Tim,
I have to say that I enjoyed the 60th anniversary specials to an extent, but I agree that they could have been better. ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is the weakest, ‘The Star Beast’ is in the middle, and ‘The Giggle’ is the best one. I didn’t predict the twist with the Meep in ‘The Star Beast’ because I thought the Meep was going to be a protagonist. I had already known about the Meep.
I hope to purchase ‘The Celestial Toymaker’ on Blu-Ray soon in order to watch it. Hopefully both that story and ‘The Giggle’ will inspire me to write my own story featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Michael encountering the Toymaker. I know the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric in ‘Divided Loyalties’, but I’ve not heard great things about that novel.
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary specials. Glad you enjoyed them. I’m pleased you agree that ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ is the weakest, ‘The Star Beast’ is in the middle and ‘The Giggle’ is the best special out of the three. I agree, the specials could have been better, which is a shame, considering I enjoyed how RTD handled the TV show when he was showrunner from 2005 to 2009.
It’ll be interesting to see the original ‘Celestial Toymaker’ story in animated form on Blu-ray. I’m looking forward to seeing it. A Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Michael story with the Toymaker! That sounds very exciting. I hope you get to write it. ‘The Nightmare Fair’ is also worth checking out on audio if you want some inspiration, and David Ballie is good as the Toymaker. Yeah, I know ‘Divided Loyalities’ tends to ‘divide’ fans (see what I did there? 😀 ). I enjoyed the book myself, though maybe I need to re-examine it and update my review on it. Hopefully I’ll do that for the new ‘Nyssa Challenge’ in 2025 to celebrate ‘Bradley’s Basement’s 10th anniversary.
Just to let you know, I’ve extended my thoughts about Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble being transgender in ‘Doctor Who’ in my ‘Giggle’ review. Hopefully my thoughts about the balance between celebrating the 60th anniversary and introducing new social-political themes in ‘Doctor Who’ by RTD is clearer compared to when I originally wrote it in my review.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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